30 November 2016

Un tajine : ustensile et plat

I've mentioned that last weekend I made what is called un tajine, using lamb and pumpkin. It occurred to me that you might not know what a tajine is. Here's one. It's pronounced [tah-ZHEEN], with the same -zh- sound as in our words measure, treasure, and pleasure.


The tajine is the name given to both the cooking dish (l'ustensile) and the food (the "dish" or le plat) that's cooked in it. Tajines are a specialty of  northwestern Africa (Morocco and Algeria). It seems they were an important part of the cooking of the original Berber people who inhabited the area before the arrival of the Arabs more than a thousand years ago.


You don't absolutely need a special cooking vessel to make a tajine, which is a highly spiced sauté or stew of meat and vegetables or meat and fruit. Highly spiced doesn't mean the tajine preparation is hot like some Mexican or East Asian dishes can be. The tajine spices include non-fiery cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, coriander, fenugrec, curry, caraway, and turmeric, plus a small quantity of hot red pepper like cayenne. The tajine "utensil" is a nice way to serve it, however.


I don't always use the tajine dish when I cook a tajine. I did use it for the lamb and pumpkin tajine the other day, because the recipe I found called for braising the lamb for an hour or more in a slow oven. A few years ago, I bought a tajine and was told that I could cook in it on a burner on top of the stove. I did so, but the pan cracked after after a time or two. As you see, the conical lid has a small vent hole or "chimney" in it so that some steam can escape, though most of it condenses on the sides and drips back down into the base, keeping the meat and vegetables moist. It works great in the oven.



For the lamb with pumpkin, I first browned chunks of lamb and a lot of sliced onions with spices in a metal pan on the stovetop, and then I transferred all that to the tajine, added some liquid, put on the lid, and put the whole thing in the oven at a fairly low temperature. The meat ended up very tender, and it was flavorful with all the spices and onions in the cooking liquid. The pumpkin went in later...

14 comments:

  1. I wondered where you cooked it all. I presume it is not very tall because it fits into your oven. The dish doesn't look very deep. Deep enough for tangine-for-two obviously. As you say, wonderful for serving

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    1. Some tajines have deeper bases so you can cook for more people. This one will hold enough food for three or four, I'd say. You usually serve the tajine with couscous "grain" as a side dish.

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  2. I have a tajine and have never used it. If I remember correctly, the directions said to soak it in water before using it and not to use it on top of an electric stove, gas only. Does that sound right? I don't know what I did with the directions on using it. Anyway, it looks cool sitting on a shelf in the kitchen! LOL! I found a recipe last week for Moroccan Turkey Tagine stew. I've considered making it with leftover turkey. Maybe I will use the tajine pot!

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    1. The tajine with the cracked base is now just decorative. I bought a second one to replace it, but I'm not sure I will try cooking in it on top of the stove. I do remember soaking the one that broke, and I was using it on a gas burner. The turkey tajine sounds good. I have to make that this winter.

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  3. I bet turkey would do well in a tagine. We always had turkey stew with potatoes and onions when I was a kid. I like turkey salad, too.

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    1. Turkey stewed with potatoes and onions does sound good. Maybe with some Moroccan spices in the mix.

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  4. The tajine makes an attractive serving dish even if you don't use it for cooking. Thanks for posting a picture, I'd never seen one before.

    Re your glass greenhouse, is it on the south side of your home?

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  5. The earthenware construction must also help with moderating the heat for slow cooking and retaining it once the dish has been cooked (I wonder, would it have been used for people to cook their meals in the baker's oven and bring them home afterwards? That was quite common in many countries before people could afford to have their own ovens).

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    1. I imagine there was a time when people took such dishes to a community oven. They could also cook in it near the fire in a fireplace.

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  6. I use mine on the gas cook top, but gale storm is right it needs to be soaked first. I leave the base in a sink of water overnight before the day I use it. Looks delicious!

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    1. Hi Sue, maybe that first tajine was defective. I think I remember soaking it well, but it cracked anyway. I think I'll just use mine in the oven. Once we went to a North African restaurant in Paris and ordered tajines. They were delicious, but I noticed that all the tajine pans were cracked!

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  7. I've been told I can use a tajine on a gas burner with a heat diffuser under it, one of those metal thingies that sits on the burner and somehow spreads the heat. And I've used mine, in the oven, for cooking a chicken. That worked quite well.

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    1. I think in theory you can cook in the tajine using a heat diffuser on a gas burner, but I'm not really willing to try it. Cooking a chicken in the tajine sounds like a good idea, maybe with some Moroccan-type spices.

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